MANAGEMENTINFORMA TION

SYSTEMSEdited by

Gordon B. DavisCarlson School of Management,

University of Minnesota

Encyclopedia Editor: Cary L. CooperAdvisory Editors: Chris Argyris and William H. Starbuck

Volume 1:AccountingEdited by Colin Clubb (and A. Rashad Abdel-Khalik)

Volume II: Business EthicsEdited by Patricia H. Werhane and R. Edward Freeman

Volume III: EntrepreneurshipEdited by Michael A. Hitt and R. Duane Ireland

Volume IV: FinanceEdited by Ian Garrett (and Dean Paxson and Douglas Wood)

Volume V: Human Resource A1.anagementEdited by Susan Cartwright (and Lawrence H. Peters, Charles R. Greer, and Stuart A.Youngblood)

Volume VI: International ManagementEdited by Jeanne Mel-lett, Henry W. Lane, Martha L. Maznevski, Mark E. Mendenhall, andJohn O'Connell

Volume VII: _Management Information SystemsEdited by Gordon B. Davis

Volume VIII: Managerial EconomicsEdited by Robert E. McAuliffe

Volume IX: MarketingEdited by Dale Littler

Volume X: Operations ManagementEdited by Nigel Slack and Michael Lewis

Volume XI: Organizational BehaviorEdited by Nigel Nicholson, Pino G. Audia, and Madan M. Pillutla

Volume XII: Strategic ManagementEdited by John McGee (and Derek F. Channon)

Index

process definition, and decision analysis andresolution.

CMMs typically have an accompanying ap-praisal method that allows users to have anevaluation of their progress conducted. The ap-praisal method currently available for use withCMNII models is the Standard CMl\1I Assess-ment Method for Process Improvement(SCAlVlPIs1V1) Class A. To help insure thatuseful and credible results are obtained fromSCA1\1PI appraisals, the SEI developed a certi-fication and authorization process for SCAMPILead Appraisers f". To insure consistency, allappraisal methods must conform to the mostcurrent Appraisal Requirements for CMMI(ARC). Although SCAMPI Class A is the onlyappraisal method currently available from the I

SEI, the SEI also plans to support the develop-ment of additional appraisal methods that differin cost, time to execute, and rigor.

PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

Process improvement objectives identify theprocesses and outcomes that an organizationwishes to improve. Successful process improve-ment initiatives must be driven by the businessobjectives of the organization. Thus, processimprovement objectives are derived from busi-ness objectives.

Process improvement is a significant under-taking that, to be successful, requires senior-levelmanagement sponsorship and a firm commit-ment of resources. Further, it is a long-termcommitment for the organization that cannot beapproached and accomplished quickly.

The costs vary depending on the organizationand its goals. However, the support of processimprovement typically requires additions to theorganizational structure, such as an engineeringprocess group (EPG).

ADOPTION RESULTS

C\lMI is being adopted worldwide, including inNorth America, Europe, India, Australia, andthe Pacific Rim. CMMI models and associatedproducts are designed to fit the needs of smalland large organizations from a variety of differ-ent industries. There are CMMI-adopting or-ganizations in fields such as electronics,aerospace, health services, finance, defense, in-surance. and transnorrarion

careers in information technology 29

Many benefits are reported by CMlY1Iusers,. including: lower development costs, more accur-ate schedules, increased quality, higher cus-tomer satisfaction, and substantial return oninvestment.

A recently published SEI report, Demonstrat-ing the Impact and Benefits ofCMMI: An Updateand Preliminary Results, provides more informa-tion about the benefits of CMMI. It is availableat www.sei.cmu.edu/publications/documents/03.reports/03sr009 .html.

Bibliography

www.sei.cmu.edu/cmm/cmms/cmms.html\VWW .sei.cmu.edu/ cmmi/

careers in information technology

Soon Ang and Sandra A. Slaughter

Information technology (IT) professionals arepeople who acquire, develop, manage, and main-tain hardware, software, and telecommunicationnetworks, and offer computing and informationservices to users. There is a wide spectrum oflTprofessionals who play various roles in the man-agement and development' of informationsystems. With the advent of client-server tech-nologies, powerful personal computers, and soft-ware languages that are easy to use, end-usershave been increasingly developing and managingtheir own computing applications, rather thanrelying on the organization's IT employees. Thistrend has contributed to the downsizing of theIT group within organizations. It also affects thenature of IT work. Rather than providing com-plete information system services to the organ-ization, IT professionals may provide supportfor end-user-developed systems or may concen-trate on developing and managing only major,company-wide applications.

Contemporary categories of IT careers in-clude:

1 Chief IT executives. These IT professionalsserve as the senior executives in the ITorganization. Chief information officers(CIOs) are top corporate officers responsiblef,,_ "h~ ~._~_._11 T'T' r ..

30 careers in information technology

Cl.Os offer leadership in managing the infor-mation resources of the firm, and indirecting the power of information technol-ogy toward the strategic objectives of thefirm. Chief technology officers (CTOs) areresponsible for technology planning, newtechnology evaluation and selection, and set-ting the vision for the firm's IT architecture.Given the increasing importance of informa-tion security, some firms have created an-other senior-level IT position, the chiefsecurity officer or chief information securityofficer (CSO). CSOs oversee and coordinateinformation technology security; establish,communicate, and implement IT securitypolicies that support the firm's IT object-ives; and act as the primary liaison withother security professionals inside and out-side of the firm.

2 Software development/engineering profession-als. These IT professionals comprise appli-cation programmers who develop softwareusing programming languages and softwaretools; systems analysts who determine userrequirements and design the systems speci-fications; and project managers who overseeand coordinate teams of programmers andsystems analysts in developing specific ap-plication systems. Positions include: applica-tions systems programmer, softwareapplications specialist! engineers, softwarearchitect/ engineer, data modeler, operatingsystems designer/programmer/engineer.

3 Web development/ administration professionals.These IT professionals design, develop, andmaintain web-based applications. They ana-lyze, design screens, develop client-serverapplications, and provide quality assuranceand testing. Positions include webmaster,web designer, web specialist/ developer.

4 Database/data warehouse professionals. TheseIT professionals design and model databases,create objects, and monitor, test, and main-tain the data integrity of the databases. Pos-itions include: database administrator, datadeveloper / modeler, and knowledge archi-tect.

5 IT operations, network design, and administra-tion professionals. These include computeroperations and network specialists who areinvolve:(!in rntnl'lllh"••"",.,."n;"" _1__ ._:__- .... 1

management; disaster recovery; security;hardware and systems software maintenance;and production or job scheduling. Contem-porary network specialists are involved withINTERNET connectivity, intranets (seeINTRANET), extranets (see EXTRANET), aswell as local and wide area networks. Theyalso analyze, install, monitor, and providemaintenance for hardware integration. Pos-itions include network administrator, net-work engineer, network manager, andinformation systems administrator. Of in-creasing importance are security specialistswho are responsible for protecting and re-covering information resources.

6 Technology support IT professionals. These areresponsible for the acquisition, installation,upgrade, maintenance, and help-desk sup-port of IT use in the organization. Positionsin this cluster of professionals include help-desk specialist, PC support specialist, callcenter support specialist, and maintenanceor technical support engineer.

CAREERORIENTATIONSOFITPROFESSIONALS

Igbaria, Greenhaus, and Parasuraman (1991)found that IT professionals are diverse in theircareer orientations, i.e., in their interests, self-perceived talents, values, and motives that shapetheir career decisions (see also Ginzberg andBaroudi, 1988). Technical and managerial orien-tations are two dominant themes among IT pro-fessionals. People in technical jobs such asapplication programmers and systems engineersare more technically oriented, while those inmanagerial jobs such as systems analysts, projectleaders, and managers are more manageriallyoriented. The study by Igbaria et a1. (1991)found that the match between job type andcareer orientation of IT professionals is import-ant because such a match leads to higher jobsatisfaction, stronger organizational commit-ment, and lower intentions to leave the organiza-tion. The implication of this study is thatmanagement should take into account differ-ences in employee interests and orientationsand provide job opportunities that match em-ployee needs.

Joseph, Ang, and Slaughter (2004) tracked the

individuals with at least one year of IT workexperience) for a 21-year period using a USNational Youth Longitudinal Survey sampleand found that IT professionals are clusteredinto three types of career profiles: technical ITprofessionals (N = 127) who devote a majorityof their careers to technical positions; managerialIT professionals (N = 72) who move to man-agerial positions after an average of three years oftechnical work experience; and ad hoc IT pro-fessionals (N = 148) who move in and out of theIT position during their career lifespan. Studiesbased on IT salary data (Ang, Slaughter, and Ng,2002; Joseph et al. 2004) found that the returnsto careers for managerial IT professionals weresignificantly higher than those of technical orad hoc careers, suggesting that the IT labormarket recognizes and pays a premium valuefor managerial competence in the IT profession.The average pay for each career profile (adjustedfor inflation to base years 1982-4; Bureau ofLabor Statistics 2004) is $26,589 for managerial,$22,185 for technical, and $16,854 for ad hoc.

OUTSOURCING AND IMPACT ON IT CAREERS

Traditionally, firms that require a specific skills setwill employ a worker under a long-term employ-ment contract where the worker works all yearround at the employer's place of business, exceptfor vacations and holidays. Unless they resign orhave their services terminated, employees are as-sumed to remain with the employer until death orretirement. From the legal perspective, bothparties have rights and responsibilities accordedto them by both common law and employmentstatutes governing the employer-employee rela-tionship. Accordingly, it is not uncommon for ITprofessionals to remain attached to a single em-ployer during their entire careers.

Careers built upon long-term employmentrelationships with single organizations workwell in situations where the skills sets requiredby the firm are relatively stable over time. How-ever, in information systems, firms are findingthat alternative employment arrangements, suchas contract work, are becoming more importantand attractive because of the increasingly rapidevolution of technology (see Ang and Slaughter,2001; Slaughter and Ang, 1995, 1996). Cutting-edge technologies typically enjoy lifespans ofonly two years. Skills of IT nr()fp~<;:;A1"<:ll" f-l,.Qv=

. I

careers in information technology 31

fore erode very rapidly. Operating in shortwindows of stable technological environments,IT organizations with a stable and static work-force anchored in traditional employment rela-tionships continually face the problem ofneeding to upgrade the skills of the workforce.In many cases, organizations may feel that com-mitment to training the internal workforce isself-defeating. Because technologies move sorapidly, by the time an organization invests inand trains its IT staff in a certain technology,that technology may already have become obso-lete.

Accordingly, the number of organizationsusing contract workers for IT work is growingdramatically, particularly with the rapid diffu-sion of IT OUTSOURCING and offshoring whereorganizations are contracting out the services ofsome or all of the IT organization to independentcontractors or service providers (Ho, Ang, andStraub, 2003).

Consequently, IT careers no longer take placein single organizations. Rather, as contractworkers, IT professionals are not attached toany single organization for a long period oftime. Instead, they are independent and self-employed, hired on a fixed-term basis for a spe-cific skill through an agreed-upon contract. Thecontract may provide a fixed duration of serviceor may operate on a job-by-job basis. From theworker's point of view, contract work providesan opportunity to establish a special expertise orprofessional status within an industry. In fact, itis often regarded as a way for workers to focus onthe aspects of their profession they most enjoy(e. g., programming instead of managing softwareprojects) without having to deal with corporatepolitics or pressures to move up the expectedcareer ladder (see Ang and Slaughter, 2001).

The trends toward outsourcing and careersbased on contract work arrangements imply anincreasing inter-organizational division of ITlabor in the future, as work formerly conductedwithin organizational boundaries and under theadministrative control of a single enterprise isparceled out to more specialized individuals ororganizational entities. The implication for ITprofessionals is that they can no longer solelyrely on building careers by moving upwards insingle organizations. Rather, IT professionals

32 CASE: computer-aided software/system engineering

themselves in light of competence-destroyingtechnologies. They must also be cognizant ofnew career opportunities offered by outsourcingarrangements. For example, ideal IT profession-als in outsourcing must possess a combination ofnot only technical and practical knowledge,skills, and abilities, but also negotiation and bar-gaining skills to sustain a flexible partnershipthat demands intense relationship building andcontinual recommitment from top to bottom ofboth client organizations and service providers.

Bibliography

Ang, S. and Slaughter, S. A. (2001). Work outcomes andjob design for contract versus permanent informationsystems professionals on software development teams.;\rfIS Quarterly, 25 (3), 321-50.

Ang, S., Slaughter, S. A., and Ng, K. Y. (2002). Deter-minants of pay for information technology profession-als: Modeling cross-level interactions. .ManagementScience, 48 (11),1425-45.

Ginzberg, M. H. and Baroudi, J. J. (1988). MIS careers:A theoretical perspective. Communications of the ACJ\1,31 (5), 586-94.

Ho, V., Ang, S., and Straub, D. W. (2003). When subor-dinates become contractors: The persistence of man-agerial expectations of transplants in IT outsourcing.Information Systems Research, 14 (1),66-86.

Igbaria, Ivl., Greenhaus, J. H., and Parasuraman,S. (1991). Career orientations of MIS employees: Anempirical analysis. MIS {btarterly, 15 (2), 151-70.

Joseph, D., Ang, S., and Slaughter, S. A. (2004). Eco-nomic returns on alternative IT careers: A sequenceanalysis. Information Management Research Center(IMARC) Working Paper, Nanyang Business School,Nanyang Technological University of Singapore (re-quest papers from asang@ntu.edu.sg).

Slaughter, S. A. and Ang, S. (1995). Information systemsemployment structures in the USA and Singapore:A cross-cultural comparison. Information Technologyand People, 8 (2), 17-36.

Slaughter, S. A. and Ang, S. (1996). Employment out-sourcing in information systems. Communications of theACM, 39 (7), 47-54.

CASE: computer-aided software/systemengrneermg

Dzenan Ridjanovic

The term "computer-aided software/ system en-gineering" (CASE) annlies t·o tool" t-h<>t- <>~n:n+

developers to analyze, design, and constructsoftware applications or information systems.The objective of the tools is to automate softwaredevelopment. This requires an integrated set offeatures to support the development of models,requirements, design, and code generation.There are a large number of CASE tools, somewith a very broad scope and some with limitedcapabilities.

CASE tools may be understood in terms ofthe process of developing an application usingthe tools. A software system is developed toprovide a solution to a problem. This requiresthe problem domain to be analyzed before asolution is proposed and a solution to bedesigned before a software system is con-structed. Once constructed, the system is main-tained. After use, it may evolve and change.There are different approaches to the develop-ment (analysis, design, and construction) of soft-ware systems, as well as different formalisms andnotations to represent requirements and designduring the software life-cycle phase.

There are two broad categories of CASE tools:tools are used in both analysis and design and theconstruction of applications. Construction usu-alJy involves generating computer program in-structions. All results of the developmentprocess using a CASE tool are stored in a reposi-tory. In this way, they can be used to maintainand evolve a software system from the analysisand design perspective, providing higher-qualitysoftware. In addition, they can be reused inother projects to increase software developmentproductivity.

A CASE tool consists of a repository of analy-sis, design, and construction tools and resultsfrom using the tools in a graphical interfacethat presents the data in a specific notation (for-malism or language). One of the important fea-tures of CASE tools is support for modeling of aproblem domain and modeling informationsystem components, such as external entities,business processes, data flows, and data stores.External entities provide specific entry and exitpoints to or from an organization unit beinganalyzed. Business processes transform, move,or store organizational data represented as dataflows or data stores. A process relies on organiza-tional resources to accomplish its tasks. If a